Teachers

Continuity and
Change: Aboriginal Title and
Rights in British Columbia

Brief Description
of Lesson

The following
curriculum materials are
specifically geared toward incorporating First Nations content into the
classroom and are available for professional use/public access and
downloading in PDF and Word format.

The lesson plan has
been developed to coincide
with the British Columbia Social Studies 11 Integrated Resource Package
and the following prescribed learning outcome:

"Students
will demonstrate knowledge of
the challenges faced by Aboriginal people in Canada during the 20th
century, and their responses, with reference
to…reserves…[and] treaty negotiations”
(BC SS 11 IRP, p. 21).

The lesson is
adaptable to also meet prescribed
learning outcomes for Social Studies 10, Civics 11, and BC First
Nations Studies 12.

The time allotment
for the lesson is 160 minutes
or roughly two classes. Some teachers have been able to do the lesson
in one class while other teachers have taken up to three classes.

We encourage
teachers and community members to
review and use these materials as they apply to your classroom and/or
research needs. When using and adapting these educational
materials and resources, we ask that teachers and students respect
First Nations cultural protocols. Your community may have
developed cultural protocol statements which can guide your
work. See if your school or district has a First Nations
liaison worker or resource person. If there is no one working
in your district that can help you, contact a local First Nations
community, teacher's association, cultural centre or friendship
centre. If you can not find a local protocol or
local help, you can base your work on the cultural
standards developed by the
Alaska
Native Knowledge Network. We
have
highlighted some of the points as a pdf document. You
may
want to set time aside to discuss cultural protocols with your students.

Impacts of
colonialism and racism are not directly
addressed in the lesson, although the issues are inherent to the
subject matter. If you require an anti-racism kit for your classroom,
the First Nations Education Steering Committee (FNESC) provides a free
toolkit on their website: http://www.fnesc.ca/about/about_anti_racism.php

The Task

After reading some
background information, you
will examine a series of documents from the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs
website, including perspectives of both aboriginal and non-aboriginal
points of view. Your task will be to evaluate what has changed and what
has remained the same over the 20th century, and to use this to provide
recommendations for policy makers in the present. It will be important
to consider both sides of the debate and to assess the moral
implications for policy-makers today.